Balkans

ZAGREB, March 3 – Croatia and Hungary signed an agreement on Tuesday to connect their natural gas pipelines by mid-2011, to ensure a steady supply for the region and avoid a repeat of a gas crisis earlier this year. The agreement was signed by the heads of Plinacro and FGSZ …

Serbia will host the sixth ministerial conference on border security cooperation in Southeast Europe this week, the Balkan country’s authorities said on Monday. The interior ministers of Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia and three EU member states — Italy, Slovenia and the Czech Republic — would discuss the realization …

Kosovo doctors re-opened state clinics and hospitals on Tuesday, ending a week-long strike after the government pledged to investigate options for responding to their demands for higher salaries. The union of health workers and the government agreed to form a parliamentary commission to look into the issue. “I want to …

Despite Bulgaria’s European Union membership, some regions of the country need a second liberation from Ottoman yoke, the Bulgarian Member of the Parliament (MP), Yane Yanev, stated, cited by the Bulgarian news agency, BGNES. Yanev, who is the leader of the opposition “Order, Law, Justice” Party (RZS) spoke Monday in …

The Bulgarian Minister of State Administration, Nikolay Vasilev, is participating Tuesday in the official hoisting of the Bulgarian National Flag and the European Union Flag at the border cross point “Kapitan Andreevo.” The hoisting coincides with Bulgaria’s National Holiday and the 131st anniversary of the country’s Liberation from five centuries …

Sofia. Bulgarian President Georgi Parvanov, Prime Minister Sergey Stanishev and chairperson of the National Assembly Georgi Pirinski have paid honor to the national heroes that had died for Bulgaria’s Liberation. The three top officials lied down wreaths at the Unknown Soldier monument in downtown Sofia. The three state officials alongside …

The president of the European Investment Bank (EIB) Philippe Maystadt told during his visit to Slovenia that cooperation with Slovenia was excellent. With more than EUR 3bn in loans, Slovenia is the biggest recipient per capita among new EU members. Maystadt is to sign three loan contracts, worth a total …

Macedonian and Greek authorities have condemned a graffiti attack on Greek tourist buses visiting Macedonia’s lake town of Ohrid at the weekend. The three buses carrying Greek tourists were parked in downtown Ohrid when they were spray-painted with slogans such as “United Macedonia”, “Alexander the Great” and some obscenities. The …

The situation in Bosnia and Herzegovina is “not good,” thanks to continued radical rhetoric among some local leaders and the country’s lack of progress towards EU membership, a senior US diplomat was quoted as saying on Tuesday. Stuart Jones, the deputy US Assistant Secretary in charge of the Balkans, on …

The EU’s law and justice mission in Kosovo, EULEX, postponed the first trial under its mandate on Monday due to a protest by Serb judicial workers opposed to the work of the mission which they see as supporting Kosovo’s independence from Serbia. The trial, against two Kosovo Serbs accused of …